THACKERAYS

                                                            THACKERAYS 

                    Shivsena v/s MNS war is still on. Facebook is flooded with many photos/campaigns of Uddhav and Raj. Shivsena supporters circulating pictures related to "Karun Dakhavale" (We did it) campaign and MNS supporters boasting about their Dadar win. Ofcourse to win wards surrounding Shivsena Bhavan is itself a big blow on Shivsena's face. But the Overall performance in Thane and Mumbai kept both the Balasaheb and Uddhav satisfied. During election and after election there were many posts flooded about political methods of both the parties. I have my own opinions about the same which I am sharing in this post.

                 Whenever people are not satisfied with the present government; they search for an option and if any political party successfully gains the confidence of voters in such situations; they surely get rewarded. The MNS factor was considered as 'Game Spoiler' as earlier it was said that 'Votes to MNS; means votes to Congress".Division of Marathi votes could have benefited Congress-NCP majorly if BJP would have not performed well in BMC election. Shivsena-BJP-RPI was the Mahayuti formed to take Congress-NCP head on. Congress does not have any influence on City voters, hence NCP plays crucial role in winning seats in important cities of Maharashtra. Apart from star campaigner NCP Suprimo Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar,R.R.Patil and Chagan Bhujbal are main leaders of NCP. Congress doesn't have proper faces in Maharashtra. Manikrao Thackeray,Gurudas Kamat, Kripashankar Singh had their own differences.Marathi people don't want to see any non-Maharasthrian leader as Chief Minister and so it is necessary for Congress to give some more power to Marathi leaders in Maharashtra. It's strategy to bank on non-Marathi voters will no more work as BJP is capable of winning trust of Gujarati, South Indian votes. Muslim voters have always trusted Congress.But this time their votes got divided in SP, BSP etc. So finally we can say that regional politics has its own equations and parties should not underestimate the existence of local people even in cosmopolitan city like Mumbai. I know I am too late to write this post.But I wanted to Shift my focus again to the main topic i.e. Shivsena and MNS 

                              Mumbai has always been the heart of Maharashtra. Many politicians tried to separate it from Mumbai for their own benefits. But people of Maharashtra never allowed it to happen; and they even gave their blood to save Mumbai from becoming Union Territory. Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti's leader Keshav Thackeray was kattar Hindu person. People know him for his Socio-political plays and his excellent articles in magazine 'Prabodhan'. He is known to people as Prabodhankar Thackeray. He migrated from Panvel to Thane -Bhiwandi- Mumbai along with his family in his childhood and got settled in Mumbai eventually. He was social worker and his work against Dowry Marriages was well known amongst all the Maharashtrians. He was all rounder. In very early age he managed to understand interest areas of their sons and guided them accordingly. His son Shrikant became Music Director/Composer and Bal Thackeray cartoonist. During his job with Free Press Journal BalaSaheb Thackeray made some memorable cartoons on Shankar rao Chavan, Indira Gandhi and other politicians in same period. Very soon he started his own publication 'Marmik' through which he introduced his ideologies to people. In 1966 Balasaheb started Shivsena and in few years he became the Hridaysamrat of Marathi people. He understood the migration problem in early period and he was the first to fight for the justice of local people. He insisted that local people should be given first preferences in jobs (Mills) and managed to get huge support of labor group in his young age. He targeted South Indians by his campaign "Lungi Uthao, Pungi Bajao" and also created Kamgar Sena to solve problems of local workers. With Akhil Bhartiya Sena he gained support of youth and with his speeches build a powerful party of Shiv sena.

                              BalaSaheb Thackeray adopted ideology of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.Mughal emporers (except Akbar) demolished Hindu Temples and converted many Hindus to Muslims. But when Shivaji Raja created Swarajya he treated all religions equally. Under the Umbrella of Hinduism all other religions flourished in his regime. That was the core of Shivsena. "Marathi in Maharashtra and Hindu in India" is the Mantra he gave to people.And so on the similar ground of Hinduism he formed an ally with BJP. Shivsena won the elections of 1993. They started with Thane first and then entered Mumbai. and soon gave their first Chief Minister to Maharashtra. Leaders like Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, and Sanjay Nirupam got their first big opportunity in Shivsena but later they left Shivsena and joined their rivals. The main reason of Shivsena coming into Goverment was their work during the riot period.Not a single Hindu in Maharashtra can deny that Shiv Sena protected them during riots; when the State Government miserably failed to maintain law and order. From the beginning itself Shiv-Sena believed that attack is the best defense. It adopted politics of hooligan/dadagiri and soon started morale policing. They resisted the westernization of culture and targeted gift shops on Valentine's day. Balasaheb was remote control of the state government when Shivsena was in power. He became HinduhrudaySamrat in late 90s. Understanding their bigger role in politics of Maharashtra Shiv Sena became milder in earlier this century. Balasaheb always targeted Gandhi-Nehru family for their Gharaneshahi and always opposed it in his party. But in Mahabaleshwar meeting of all Maharashtra Shivsena leaders Raj Thackeray himself and some other leaders proposed name of Uddhav Thackeray for the post of Karyakari Adhyaksha of Shivsena. Few years Raj and Uddhav worked together. Raj was involved in active politics from his very early age. He attended all the Sabhas of Balasaheb and seen his political career closely. He also worked in development projects of Nashik, Thane along with his senior leaders when Shivsena was in power.After the death of his father Shrikant Thackeray; BalaSaheb took his responsibility and trained him in Politics considering him as his next successor. Balasaheb's only son BinduMadhav was interested in politics who died in an accident; Jaydev left his family due to personal problems and Uddhav was trying hard to make his carrier in Photography. So BalaSaheb relied on Raj Thackeray and gave him maximum responsibility which helped him to learn decision making process perfectly. He was very experienced. So when from nowhere Uddhav decided to enter politics suddenly; many eyebrows raised. But Raj accepted Party-workers decisions and worked with Uddhav for several years. But soon he publicly started to condemn Uddhav's leadership. He watched Uddhav doing goof-up on many fronts and he realized that Uddhav is not capable enough to lead. 

              Raj Thackeray with his political ambitions and due to the internal politics against him in Shivsena left Shiv Sena and started his own political party 'Maharashtra Navnirman Sena'. Commonly known as Manase, MNS could not gain support in its first two years. But then Raj Thackeray repeated history of Balasaheb Thackeray. He started targeting the migrating mob to Mumbai in his speeches. Abu Azmi and Raj Thackeray's verbal tussle lead to charges against both of them and both become heroes for their respective supporters. To show their support to Raj Thackeray MNS party-workers bashed up North Indian cab drivers, students trying to get jobs in Mumbai and that gained Raj bad publicity in rest of India. But any Publicity is Good publicity hold true. He became well known personality in India.With love me or hate me but you can never ignore me kind of personality Raj Thackeray and his party MNS started to gather good support in Maharashtra. Specially youth started to getting attracted to his charismatic leadership. His powerful speeches reminded many elders of Balasaheb's speeches in his youth, and so people started looking at him as the next big leader who will fight for local people of Mumbai and Marathi Manus of Maharashtra. But he has still not able to create Second league of powerful leaders under his banner which resulted his slow growth.With this election MNS has emerged as an option to Shivsena and it's also been proved that both the parties can co-exist without affecting each other's performances in elections. Through his meeting with Narendra Modi and through his development related issues Raj Thackeray is re-branding himself as 'Vikas Purush' rather than 'Masiha 4 Marathi' people.In the election Aditya Thackeray - the son of Uddhav Thackeray has joined active politics and it's been said that the son of Raj Thackeray - 'Amit' is all set to take 'Aditya' head on. So the 4th Generation Thackeray's are all set to support their fathers. It's interesting to see the future developments in Maharashtra politics.Jai Hind.